In answer to the first question: a WT can help if u get lost as there are some things that have specific triggers & actions that must happen to continue as questline (get a girl pregnant, wait for birth, level girl up, complete other quests, learn a skill ect...) but if you explore & complete as u do you'll get a feel. The only way to shoot yourself in the foot is by doing things that are truly jerk-ish (not taking responsibility for pregnancies, being a deuce, saying the obviously wrong thing to a girl about specific requests, killing treemen. The only time u wanna be "bad" is when it will OBVIOUSLY benefit you in a good way (like lying to a virgin acolyte that her god has left her to die...)
Answer to you're second: Yes playing the TEST version means you will probs come across bugs, breaks & issue that the Dev hasent noticed. This TEST version was released specifically as a bug hunt if u will. If you want to play without issues play the last version released & wait for this one to update.